The asteroid 3434 Hurless was named after Carolyn Hurless, an
AAVSO merit award winner with a lifetime total of 79,000 observations
made from 1959 until her death in 1987. The asteroid was discovered
in 1981 by B.A. Skiff at the Anderson Mesa Station of the Lowell
Observatory. Carolyn's name was suggested by Paul Sventek who provided
the citation. The following remarks are based on a letter David Cortner
sent to me shortly after the name was assigned.
The asteroid will spend the fall of 1994 high in the constellation
Taurus, well north of the ecliptic and perfectly placed for nothern
hemisphere observers. At its brightest, between late October and early
December, it will be no brighter than magnitude 16.4 to 16.0, but its
position high in the clear winter sky may make up for some of its
faintness. That year the asteroid and the Earth will pass within 124
million miles. The new moons of early November and December 1994 will
provide the next best opportunity to pick the asteroid out. [I managed
a pretty good photo of 3434 on Thanksgiving weekend, 1994, on Tech Pan
from a suburban backyard. I'll post that photo when I can steal the
time to prep it for the web. DC]
There will be one other opportunity to glimpse 3434 Hurless
before the end of this century.
At the beginning of 1998, the asteroid will be both hidden by
sunlight and lost among some of the richest star fields of the
summer Milky Way. It will be near magnitude 18.4. Throughout
spring, it will move north through Capricorn and Aquarius, gliding
just south of the ecliptic. It will brighten to 17th magnitude as
it and the Earth close from 320 million miles in January to 190
million miles in early summer. In mid-June, the asteroid enters
the constellation Pisces as a 17th magnitude object. In early
July it enters Cetus where it will remain for the rest of the
year. By the time it enters Cetus, the asteroid will be 'only'
150 million miles from Earth. At magnitude 16.5, it will be
within reach of very large amateur telescopes. By the end of
July or by the beginning of August, 3434 Hurless will be brighter
than 16th magnitude. It reaches perihelion during the first week
of August and begins to withdraw from the Sun very slowly. The
asteroid will continue to brighten as the Earth overtakes it in
our faster orbit. On the last day of August, the asteroid begins
retrograde motion. On September 18, the Earth draws within 100
million miles. Closest approach comes on the night of September 30
when the asteroid will be 98.5 million miles from Earth. The
asteroid will then be between magnitude 15.5 and 15.0. It will
be faint for the few weeks surrounding this date, but not hopelessly
faint, just a nice inner sanctum kind of faint. It should be
visible with care under dark skies with comparatively modest
New moons (and darkest skies) occur around the 20th of each
month from September through November 1998. One of those dark
moons should offer our best chance to actually see 3434 Hurless.
It will remain brighter than 16th magnitude until mid-November.
Then, as it lags farther and farther behind the Earth, it will
fade quickly through 17th to 18th magnitude by the end of the year.
For perspective, it is interesting to compare these favorable
oppositions with a maximally favorable one. At the opposition
of 1985, the first following its discovery, the then anonymous
asteroid briefly reached magnitude 13.8 - 14.2, easily within
reach of even modest telescopes under good skies. This is the
brightest it has been since 1980 and the brightest it will be
until at least 2018.
These notes about the physical characteristics of 3434 Hurless
are based on comparisons of 3434 Hurless with other asteroids of
similar absolute brightness, and therefore, presumably, of
similar sizes. I know of no photometric studies or UBV measurements
which could answer questions about the asteroid's composition or
rotation and general shape. [In the years since these notes
were written, acquiring this sort of data has become a perfectly
reasonable project for CCD-equipped amateurs. DC]
In the absence of particulars, then, let us suppose 3434 is 15km
(9.5 miles) in diameter. If mostly metallic (with an approximate
density of 7 g/cm3), then its 450 cubic miles contain 13.7 trillion
tons of nickel and iron. If stony, then it "weighs" about 5.5
trillion tons (assuming a density of 2.8 g/cm3). From the estimated
size and these guestimated masses, we can infer the following
- Speed required to escape from the surface: 21 - 33 mph.
- Speed required to orbit just above the surface: 15 - 24 mph.
- Time required for one orbit: 1h 15m to 1h 58m.
The sorriest little league pitcher with the sorest of arms could
casually toss a ball all the way around the asteroid (a distance
of about 30 miles), and catch it an hour or two later or an hour or
two after that on the ball's next orbit (or after its next, or
its next, or its next...).
From 3434 Hurless the Earth is at most 16 arcseconds in apparent
diameter and it is never nearly as bright a planet as Venus is as
seen from the Earth. The Earth ventures about half as far from
the Sun as Venus does for us. As seen from Hurless, our moon,
several magnitudes fainter (a binocular object) is sometimes as
far as 8.7 arcminutes from the Earth (about a third the apparent
width of the Moon as seen from Earth). Mars and Jupiter are the
brightest planets in the sky of 3434 Hurless. Jupiter is sometimes
near enough that it's disk could be seen with the naked eye and at
those times Jupiter shines about as brightly as Venus ever shines
in the skies of Earth. Mars goes through phases as seen from 3434
and shines three or four magnitudes more faintly in the asteroid's
sky than Venus does in ours.
Don has presented this material to various groups from time to
time. I plan to update this version with photos made at the
1994 opposition near the Hyades, with some "light curves" showing
the asteroid's brightness over the years, some maps, lots more
numbers, and assorted other notes. Eventually, it would be nice to
include UBV and photometric data to establish composition, rotation,
and perhaps shape. DC